I Surrender!

Dagnabbit, I am not going to make my NaNo word count by the end of the month.  I was SO on track, too.  And then life brought me Penny.

The "little" white puppy with the black ears is Penny.  The poor, brown, slob, laying down and taking the abuse, is Stella.  In the 7 short days that Penny has been part of our family, Stella has earned the Princess of Patience award.  Poor thing can't move without being impaled with puppy teeth.  Ears, throat, belly, all bear the marks of her unwillingness to take a bite out of the baby. 

Anyway. 

Not doing so well with getting any kind of writing done at all. I have, however, lost five pounds this week...all that running outside for housetraining is more activity than I've had in a while. 

The Teen Drama Queen, however, is on a roll.  She sat down last night and asked me to help her figure out some stuff with a short story she's supposed to turn in at school today.  I am in total awe at the level of detail in setting, dialogue, and character description she cranks out. She read me the opening for a story about four teens who discover (conveniently)  four necklaces with magical witchcraft powers.  The story she needed to turn in was supposed to be 1000 words, and she probably needs another 70,000 to get this complicated story finished.

I suggested maybe she should tell the story of the witch who created the necklaces...and in less than an hour, she brought me a completed short story, told in first person. It's about Mary Ash, a young married woman who believes her magic is a curse.  She's kept her witchiness a secret from her husband, but then her evil twin brother "outs" her (we're talking Salem, back in the day) and her husband proves his devotion by swearing to hide the necklaces that hold her power, so her evil twin brother won't get them.  But then Mary is burned at the stake (again...first person narrative*shudder*) and her brother undergoes spontaneous combustion. 

I am so proud of this kid!  She really struggles with school sometimes, but if her teachers don't suck the joy of learning from her, I think she'll be a great writer some day.